Royal Scotland
Sir: With reference to Hugh Montgomery- Massingberd's article on the Scottish court (25 April). George IV was, as he says, the first of the Hanoverian Kings to visit Scotland; but, as Holyrood had been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair, he stayed for two weeks at Dalkeith Palace as a guest of the 16-year-old Duke of Buc- cleuch and Queensberry.
In gratitude for his young host's hospital- ity, the king presented him with a full- length portrait of himself in Highland costume by Sir David Wilkie. It was as a result of this visit that all but nine, I think, of the Scottish tartans were invented by the German tailors in London.
In 1842 Queen Victoria followed her uncle's example on her first visit to Scot- land. As Captain-General of the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen's Body- guard for Scotland, the Duke presented to Her Majesty `ane pair of barbed arrows' being the reddenda to the Sovereign by their charter. The Freedom of the City of Edinburgh was conferred on the Prince Consort.
George Scott
The Old Almshouse, Weekley, Kettering, Northamptonshire
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